VOICES LOST:
Though Frank Gifford (left), Howard Cosell and "Dandy Don" Meredith were the voices of "Monday Night Football" from 1971-83, the ratings success of the show because of the game and not their voices, says Photo: Phil Mushnick. AP

The death of “Dandy Don” Meredith, this week, resurrected a great myth about televised sports, a myth so stubborn that it has been repeated — and practiced — so frequently that it’s regarded as an historical truth.

Contrary to the claims of popular culturists, the immediate and sustained ratings success of ABC’s “Monday Night Football” had nothing to do with ABC’s second-season teaming of Meredith, Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford, 1971 through 1983.

Though in time he became unfamiliar with team’s players and particulars, Meredith specialized in having fun and being funny.

But The Pep Boys, Manny, Moe and Jack, could have called those games and total viewership would have been the same.

Prior to 1970, the NFL was a Sunday afternoon league, but, with TV and gambling driving its train, it already had caught baseball for first place in popularity.

Prime-time, nationally televised Monday night games were such a clear, present and welcomed novelty that “Monday Night Football” would have been huge
on any network and with anyone in the booth.

As sports fans know but many TV executives never will, game announcers can force viewers to tune out, but they can’t force them to tune in. FOX would have succeeded as the NFC’s new network had it not paid John Madden between $6-8 million a year to work 20 telecasts.

Mike Emrick is TV’s best hockey play-by-player. Marv Albert is TV’s best basketball play-by-player. They enhance
every game they call. But they can’t make us watch. They know it. We know it.

NFL viewership has never been greater, yet how many good NFL announcers are there?

Yet, the myth-as-fact persists that the success of “MNF” was born of Cosell, and, at his sides, Meredith and Gifford — as if the football being played in front of them deserves only partial credit.

Fact is, the highest rated Monday night game came in 1985, the year after Meredith left and two years after Cosell left. It was the Bears-Dolphins game of Dec. 2.

The Bears came in 12-0, having beaten their last three opponents by an aggregate 104-3. The 8-4 Dolphins, that night, were honoring their 1972 team — the undefeated one that the Big Bad Bears now threatened. The Dolphins won, 38-24.

Football, not ABC’s announcers, were responsible for every viewer, that night. In fact, one of “MNF’s” weakest teams — Gifford, Joe Namath and O.J. Simpson — called that game.

From “MNF’s” first season through its third, I watched nearly every game in a large room — the lobby of a dorm, the living room of a frat house, the Student Union — with at least 20 other guys. None of us heard a word the announcers said.

In those first few years it never mattered who was calling those games. An NFL game appeared every Monday night. That’s all that mattered.

In reporting Meredith’s death, Monday, “ABC World News Tonight” correspondent John Berman concluded with the claim that Cosell, Meredith and Gifford “often were more entertaining than the game.”

Perhaps, from time to time, that was true. But it didn’t matter.

Holmes pushes through pain to showboat

Priorities: Jets wide receiver Santonio Holmes clearly was hurt after making a catch on Monday. But he still was able to rise and perform, though weakly, his first-down showboat move.

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How did the Steinbrenner brothers think Yankees fans would feel when they saw that George Steinbrenner
‘s plaque in Monument Park would be three times the size of Babe Ruth
‘s? Or didn’t that cross their minds?

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Get your G.O. Card Credit Card! G.K. takes his son to the Jersey high school football championships, Saturday, a way to show his kid PSL Stadium for $12 a ticket instead of $12,000 a ticket. “But NFL prices for food at a high school game, starting at $4.75 for a lukewarm pretzel.”

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With Tiger Woods
looking like a winner on 18, Sunday, lots of readers noted that his caddy, “Stevie” Williams
, often as arrogant as his boss, removed his bib. Game over. But when Graeme McDowell
made his longish putt, Williams had to slip back into something less comfortable.

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Sunday, McDowell makes a 10-footer to save bogey and remain tied with Woods. NBC’s Dan Hicks
, borrowing from golf-on-TV’s inanities, calls it “a courageous putt.” For crying out loud, was there small arms fire being aimed at him?

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The International Boxing Hall of Fame has selected Sylvester Stallone
for induction. Seriously. Those were movies, fellas, movies!

Tackling takes a big ‘hit’

One OF the most overlooked elements in tackling being lost to “hitting” is how often a tackle would be far more effective than trying to knock an opponent onto a gurney.

Sunday night on NBC, the Ravens’ Joe Flacco hit Anquan Boldin over the middle. Next, Steelers defensive back Bryant McFadden, instead of trying to tackle Boldin — he had a clear shot — tried to lay him out with a shoulder hit. Boldin bounced clear and ran for another 20 yards.

Such occurrences are frequent, yet they’re rarely, if ever, pointed to on TV.

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NBC’s Al Michaels
, Sunday night, surely made some viewers gag on their Cheez-Its. After the Ravens’ Donte Stallworth
made a catch and run, Michaels dutifully addressed Stallworth’s absence from the NFL, last season. Well, sorta:

“Stallworth was involved in that accident in Florida where a man was killed, and he was suspended all of last season.”

Yeah, he was involved
in that
accident, the one in which a man was killed. Stallworth, driving drunk after a night of partying, ran over that man, killing him. Michaels made it sound as if Stallworth was an accidental victim of an accident.

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Hey, if NBC’s Michaels and Cris Collinsworth
were going to keep telling us how cold it was in Baltimore, Sunday night, why didn’t they tell us why the game wasn’t played in afternoon daylight hours? Oh, the NFL’s lust for TV money prevented that? Then never mind.

And why the weekly, pandering on-air chats about whether Steelers’ anti-personnel missile James
“$120,000 In Fines” Harrison
has legit gripes with the league? All Harrison has to do is cease trying to decapitate opponents, no?